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I knew it was going to be a really warm week, 7 days of temps over 100 degrees, time to turn on the lawn sprinklers. I always do the front yard first, fewer sprinklers and usually they don’t need much more then fine tuning.

When Penny was here, it was her job to supervise me, now it falls on Shelby’s little shoulder. It was really nice to have her hanging out and supervising me. She was also keeping an eye open for neighbors coming home. That’s when she works her way to visit them in search of a treat. We found a major leak by the driveway, so I dig around and find a plastic piece had broken. Shelby and I run down to the local hardware store, pick up the replacement and cruised back home.

She’s right by side making sure I cleaned, repaired and assembled the sprinkler correctly. I get the the OK that everything looks good, so with Phillips screwdiver in hand, I head around the corner of house and manually turn the sprinklers on.

As soon as I open the valve, I look around the corner of house and see a very wet Shelby motivating down the sidewalk, on what looks like her rear legs only, front leg off the ground! Shelby’s poppin’ a wheelie! By the time I catch up to her, she and I are both out of breath…she’s highly upset and I’m doing the best I can not to laugh. I pick her up and apologize as we head back to the house where I grab a towel and dry her off as best I can. She really wasn’t that wet, but you know how a princess can be.

I feel really bad about what happened… and I swear, with just a bit of a smirk, I didn’t do it on purpose.

Many of you know we took the P.P. to Las Vegas last weekend to meet some new folks and pawty, after all, it is Las Vegas. We took in the “strip”, photo’s to follow, went down to the Pawn Shop that’s on TV and of course the Harley and the BMW motorcycle stores.

We had a ball at the pawty, loved going to Red rock Canyon, loved taking a ton of pictures and when the time came, loved coming home.

We left Las Vegas last Monday morning at 6AM and started home. Shelby seemed resigned to the fact that she would be all curled up in the front seat for a long time. It took us 11 hours to get home. We stopped a little more often to get her out and let her run amok. But I still got that, Gees, aren’t we home yet look.

As we got about a 1/4 of a mile from home, she sprang up in her seat and her smile came back, her tail was waging, as much as it could in the front bucket seat, and she knew we were close to home. I parked the truck went around to her side to open the door, as soon as her feet hit the ground, she took off running towards the front door. SHE WAS HOME and her big sister and brother were on the other side of the door!!!! She looked like, “C’mon dude, get this stinkin door open!!!!”

I opened the door and she flew into the house, she missed her big sister and brother, she ran, hopped, slid, took a couple of headers as she tore through the house, spinning, TRIPAWD Twirling, kissing her sister, and she even kissed Charlie??? She hit her water bowl 2 or 3 times for a splash and dash, and then ran right over and hopped up on her couch!

She was home, her sister and brother were here, her water and food bowls were here, the servants were here, the P.P. was HOME!!! All was right with her world!

I have never seen her so happy and so fired up as she was when she burst through the front door!

It made the whole trip worth it, just to see how happy she was to “come home.”

She has been in our life since April 4th, 2009 and we have packed a ton of wonderful “stuff” in that time.

She has met hundreds of people and brought joy, smiles and a few tear filled memories to almost everyone of them.

On her birthday we usually take her to “her” favorite In and Out hamburger store. Being the selfish humans that Cindi and I are, we planned a trip to the Sierra’s for fall colors and will not be here to take the P.P. for her birthday “cheeseburger and fries”, so…hopefully, she will forgive us and put on a brave face and try to have a good time when we take her to In and Out on Friday, the 21st.

We are so blessed to have Shelby in our lives and so fortunate to have met and made so many friends through TRIPAWDS.

I took 6 pieces of chicken, 3 pieces of pork loin and 2 small steaks out of the reefer and got them ready to bar-b-que just like Sweetie told me to.

With my loyal bar-b-que helper, Penny, by my side, we were on the back deck getting the coals going and adding a few Jack Daniels coals to the mix, when out of the corner of my eye I spot a light tan front dog leg creep up over the ledge of the counter and snag one of the steaks! I was dumbfounded!!!! A steak thief was loose in our neighbourhood, and what was worse was they were in our house!! I had to get into the house and save Charlie and Shelby from those dirty rotten so and so’s that stole our steak. I got into the house through the master bedroom, crept silently down the hall. As I got closer to the living room I saw the garage door was closed and locked from the inside and so was the front door! I frantically looked for Charlie and Shelby and that’s when I saw the thief or thieves…Charlie was chewing as fast as his little Cocker jaws were able to move and over behind the kitchen island was the dreaded 3 legged steak thief herself…IT WAS SHELBY, yes that Shelby, the Petite Princess Shelby smacking her lips!

I can’t express the feelings that I experienced. How could this have happened, where had her mother, AKA the maid, and I, AKA the chauffeur, had gone so wrong. What had we done to deserve this? And then I remembered…yes, how could I forget, it must have been Charlie that put her up to it. Sure, Charlie is shorter and not quite agile enough to pull it off so he got Shelby to do his dirty work for him!!! I bet you a another steak that Charlie learned these kinds of things when he was doing hard time in the Sonoma County dog jail.

I told Sweetie as soon as she got home what happened, Ha!!! she laughed, I bet you the ex-con put her up to it! Your son, why is he always my son when he does something wrong, your son, had to be the one to put her up to it. She would never do anything like that on her own.

Well, we sat down to eat, minus 1 steak, and as I looked at Shelby, she hopped onto the couch, made herself comfortable, and instead of facing us as she lay there, she rolls over and faces the back of the couch and gives us the “butt!” Couldn’t/Wouldn’t even face us, pretends she’s not feeling well, got a tummy ache, does not even move when we called her, but as soon as she hears there are tiny pieces of steak being cut, she bounds from the couch and heads for the kitchen doing the “Tripawd Twirl” as she zero’s in on the maid as she cuts the last of the steak. Then, her and Charlie sit like 2 little angles staring at Penny and I as we munch on little, tiny slivers of steak. I’m pretty sure I saw Penny smirk at her little sister as I told Penny what a good dog she was and would she like another piece of steak?

Howdy, the chauffer is taking Charlie and I to Petaluma tomorrow morning so we can visit our friends at the retirement home. Then we drop off ‘ol Charmin Chuckie at the house, then, I have to put on my Black Bling Harness and then it’s off to the humane society for a Halloween party from 1 till 4.

I think I’ll try the dunkin for hot dogs booth tomorrow, but I might get my black bling harness all hot dogged up, wow, it’s hard being a fashion plate. Oh what to do…what to do… I’ll have to sleep on it tonight.

Hope your Satuday is a great one! Take care, Shelby, the Petite Princess.